The private ownership of pay telephone technology has been an added source of revenue for a variety of businesses for some time. The actual cash collection from the coins deposited by users of pay telephone stations is the most obvious source of such revenues. More recently, due to technological advances and changes in the business climate, businesses have been able to add income from long distance telephone calls. With the use of an automated operator service (AOS), a private owner of a telephone can bill users of the telephone for both inter-LATA and intra-LATA long distance calls.
While an AOS can generate revenue where none existed before, they are very inefficient. An AOS usually operates from a central office. Hence, in the case of an intra-LATA call, the call may have to travel hundreds of miles and finally terminate a few miles from its origination point. The unnecessary miles traveled through the network are expensive and this cost is usually borne by the user, through higher long distance rates, or by the owner of the telephone through lower commissions.
In addition, private owners of pay telephones have heretofore lost a considerable amount of revenue because of their inability to charge for collect, credit card calls, and calls placed using a variety of other forms of billing access formats made on their pay telephones, Although these types of long distance calls have been made on the privately owned and maintained pay telephone, the primary telephone companies have reaped the benefit of placing these calls.
Therefore, a need has arisen for a telecommunications system which can automate and simplify the processes currently handled by a traditional AOS and automatically route long distance calls without the intervention of an outside service.
A telephone which could actively interact with a patron through the use of message prompts could accomplish this desired automation. If a particular telephone station could be programmed remotely as to the functionality of the particular station and the content of the messages, the flexibility and convenience of a telecommunications system encompassing the station could be greatly enhanced.
Therefore a need has arisen for a telecommunications systems which can program a particular telephone station from a remote location.